16th Meeting of States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban
Convention

Statement by ESTONIA

Check against delivery!

Viin, 18-21 detsember 2017

Mr President (H.E. Thomas Hajnoczi, Ambassador of
Austria to the UN in Geneva),

Estonia aligns itself with the statement delivered by
the European Union, but allow me to add a few remarks to express our support for
this important Convention.

The Ottawa Convention is one of the success stories of
multilateral disarmament diplomacy. In addition to the overall good level
of compliance by States Parties in its key aspects, this convention has brought
clear results on the ground,
through mine clearance, victim assistance, stockpile destruction, and as a
peace-building instrument. Estonia
shares its objectives and its aspiration to achieve an anti-personnel mine free
world without new victims by 2025. We support strengthening the effectiveness of this convention, its universalisation and the implementation of
the Maputo Action Plan.

We recognise, that although the Ottawa Convention
became an international norm quickly after its entry into force, financing its
implementation has been a challenge over the past years. It is regrettable that
the serious financial situation
of the Convention has led to the shortening of the Meeting of States Parties
for two consecutive years. We urge all States
to comply with their financial obligations on time and pay all outstanding arrears.

Mr President,

Estonia is a firm supporter of humanitarian
demining activities and mine
action and has been regularly contributing to demining efforts for more than 10
years. Humanitarian demining is one
of the priority areas in our Government's strategy for Estonia's development
cooperation and humanitarian assistance for years 2016-2020. In recent years, we have
increased our contributions, including financial support to the United Nations
Mine Action Service(UNMAS), as
well as to clean-up of various explosive remnants of war and mine-clearance activities
under several bilateral and international humanitarian projects. In the
beginning of this year the Estonian government redoubled its annual
contribution to UNMAS mine action activities in Iraq (40 000 USD).
Estonia has previously supported mine action in Mali, Gaza, Libya, Lebanon and
Afghanistan. Moreover, in 2017 the MFA
Estonia financed a development cooperation project for developing a
humanitarian demining training system in Ukraine.

Since 2006, we have also regularly supported and
gradually increased our contributions to the Ottawa Implementation Support Unit
(ISU) in achieving its mandate-based targets. Estonia stands ready to look
further into financing mechanisms of the ISU when the States Parties are ready
to do so.

On a different matter. We recognise
fully the difficult challenges Ukraine faces with regard to Article 5
obligations as result of Russian aggression and ongoing military conflict in
the area. Recalling, that the 15th Meeting of States Parties
expressed concern about this situation, we invite Ukraine to submit the request
for extension of Article 5 at the earliest opportunity. We reaffirm our
unwavering support for Ukraine's unity, sovereignty, independence and
territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

Mr President,

At this 20th anniversary year of the
signature of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, let me conclude by commending you, Mr President, for Austria’s active
Presidency of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention and express my
gratitude to you as well as to the Implementation Support Unit for all the good
work done to ensure a successful meeting. You have my delegation’s full
support.